Australia’s office furniture manufacturers are under increasing pressure from imports, the latest analysis from IndustryEdge shows. In 2018, imports lifted 20% to a record 1.450 million items, while the average import price fell more than 10% over the year. Source: Timberbiz
“Our clients involved in making office furniture tell us they are feeling the effect of the big rise in imports,” Tim Woods, managing director of IndustryEdge told DTN.
“In mid 2017, when imports began to rise, they expected it would be short term, but that hasn’t proved to be the case.”
IndustryEdge supplied the chart, which shows month-by-month, the annualized import numbers.
“So, take a close look at the chart and you can see that the number of units has never been higher, but the total value has declined or been flat at least, over the last year,” Mr Woods said. “That means the average import price is falling.”
Over the last two years, although there has been some growth, IndustryEdge says new offices, and the normal replacement rate, do not account for imports rising by around 500,000 units in 18 months.
“We are talking about wooden office desks, wall units and similar items,” Mr Woods said. “Unless the imports are falling apart or there are massive numbers of new jobs in offices, these are replacement items.”
Mr Woods points to the normal market conditions as being a mix of local production and imports, usually growing at pretty similar paces.
“Because the market doesn’t seem to have grown as quickly as imports, we think it is pretty clear the domestic manufacturers are under pressure. That means their local particleboard and MDF suppliers could be under pressure also,” he said.
IndustryEdge says the pressure comes from ever-falling average import prices. The average price of imported wooden furniture items fell 10.1% in 2018, falling to a record low A$52.32 per item, measured on a free-on-board basis.
Find out more at www.industryedge.com.au
